Filter to

This introduction outlines the history and practices of Freemasonry, from its legendary origins to modern incarnations around the world. The author argues that, although the Craft has frequently been viewed with suspicion, Masonic ideals are a force for good.

In May 1978 Harold Pinter and Antonia Fraser visited Israel on the 30th anniversary of its independence. Fraser’s account of the trip, forgotten in a cupboard for decades, describes their visits to historic sites and meetings with Shimon Peres and Jackie Kennedy. It also offers an affectionate portrait of Pinter’s foibles, and his coming to terms with his Jewish heritage.

Coromandel is what Europeans once called south-east India. In this fusion of history and travelogue, the bestselling author of Ashoka explores the region south of the river Narmada, meeting historians, gurus and local people, to unlock the mysteries of its extraordinary past.

Slightly off-mint

From 18th-century flock wallpapers to modern designs such as Bike Chain by Brixton Print Shed or Newton Paisley’s floral pattern featuring endangered species, Zoë Hendon’s concise and richly illustrated history reveals wallpaper’s often overlooked role in interior design and making houses feel like home.

The disappearance of Sir John Franklin and his crew of 129 in the Arctic in 1848 prompted many searches, but it was not until the 21st century that his two ships were located. Paul Watson, who was aboard the icebreaker that found the Erebus, describes the hunt for the doomed expedition, and the combination of modern science and Inuit tradition that finally revealed its fate. Slightly off-mint.

Slightly off-mint.

Concentrating on the late fourth and early fifth centuries, Vuolanto’s study examines how the rise of Christianity and, with it, asceticism raised issues of sexuality, marriage, family and celibacy, challenging the traditional norms and practices of a culture in which to remain unmarried had not been an option.

Examining the experience of charity and the complex motivations that prompted charitable endeavour in the period c.1100 to 1650, this volume of 13 essays includes case studies relating to England, France and the Low Countries. The topics under discussion include charity towards lepers; bequests for the poor in 15th-century Norwich wills; monastic poor relief in late medieval England; and Huguenot charity in London.

As she examines interactions between theology and its social context in early medieval England, Foxhall Forbes uses a diverse range of evidence to demonstrate how theological debate affected the lives, values and personal perspectives of religious and lay people.

Michael Korda paints a picture of day-to-day life in London at the time of the Battle of France, drawing on his own childhood experiences. He weaves this with the detailed story of the Dunkirk evacuation, which mitigated the blow of military defeat. Using maps of the developing military action, he dissects successes and failures of French, German and British leadership, including the Vice-Admiral whose contingency plans played a crucial role. American-cut pages

Throughout the 20th century regular outbursts of revolutionary fervour brought long-standing regimes to an end and reshaped societies around the world. More than 20 such moments are featured here, from the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, which overthrew the Qing Dynasty, to the uprisings that swept eastern Europe during and after the Soviet Union’s collapse. Housed in a sturdy slipcase, the book contains 15 removable facsimile documents, including the proclamation of Tsar Nicholas’s abdication and a revolutionary poster from Cuba.

While the creation of international tribunals to try heads of state for crimes against humanity are usually hailed as new, breakthrough victories for human rights, this study argues that such trials have a long history. In cases from Charles I in 1649 to Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, in 2012, Laughland examines the constitutional issues raised by political trials and ‘special tribunals’, discussing the nature of the Prosecution and the often ignored Defence as well as procedural shortcomings.

The most significant people, events and works of literature from the Victoria era are introduced chronologically in this concise account of the social and economic changes that shaped the nation.

Giles Morgan presents a succinct history of the Anglo-Saxons, from the fifth-century Saxon invasion to the Norman Conquest, and ends with chapters on their enduring influence in works such as George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones, and the recent discoveries of Anglo-Saxon hoards.

‘Oh, if the queen were a man, she would like to go and give those horrid Russians ... such a beating!’ wrote Victoria; while in Russia, Alexander III described the queen as a ‘pampered, sentimental, selfish old woman’. In this study of the hostility between the British and Russian royal courts, Coryne Hall begins with the disastrous marriage of Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saarfeld, Victoria’s ‘Aunt Julie’, to Grand Duke Constantine in 1795, then traces 60 years of the queen’s fear and distrust of the Romanov dynasty.

When a Crusade was launched against them early in the 13th century, the Cathars were dominant in the Languedoc region and had won widespread support from nobility and peasants. Martin explains the movement’s development, the fractious political context in which it flourished and the principles of simplicity, equality and non-violence which lay at the heart of the Cathars’ heretical teachings and their implacable opposition to the Catholic Church. Second edition.

Here, the author considers how the BBC balanced its broadcasting output during the Second World War to include news reporting, morale boosting content, advice for the Home Front and government messaging, and why it chose to eschew propaganda.

Slightly off-mint.

The pivotal year of the First World War was marked by a series of events with far-reaching repercussions, from the Battle of the Somme and the Easter Rising to the assassination of Rasputin and the election of President Woodrow Wilson. Drawing on military, social and cultural sources, this history goes beyond the Western Front to explore crucial developments in the war at sea, in the intelligence war, and in the Balkans, East Africa and Asia.

Although North Shields was more advantageously positioned on the Tyne than its upstream neighbour, the 13th-century royal charter granting Newcastle a monopoly over trade held back the settlement's expansion for centuries. This illustrated history identifies the events that shaped the town, describing the local industries of coal mining, shipbuilding and fishing and giving an insight into the working and living conditions of its inhabitants during the period of rapid expansion in the 19th century.

In 1501, when William Dunbar described it as ‘the flower of Cities all’, London was already a significant capital city, a great port and a hub of culture and commerce. In 1666, the Great Fire destroyed almost all of the old walled city and environs. Drawing on archaeological, written and pictorial records, Wynn Jones traces London’s history from Ancient Britons, through Roman, Saxon, medieval, Tudor and Stuart times, to the aftermath of the Fire. The book concludes with four walks for rediscovering the pre-1666 city.

Drawing on his experience in politics, former MP Kenneth Baker examines how the Seven Deadly Sins have been depicted in art and literature through the ages. Using excerpts from plays, poetry and fiction, he discusses the sins, reflects on their continuing presence in today’s more secular society, and concludes that life would be banal and unchallenging without them. The extensive illustrations include works by old masters such as Botticelli and Bosch, press photographs, and cartoons by Gillray, Rowlandson, Bateman, Peter Brookes and Dave Brown.

Born into a Quaker banking family, Elizabeth Fry (1780–1845) worked tirelessly for the reform of prisons and asylums. This memoir, first published in 1847, is largely composed of extracts from her journals and letters, edited and with a linking narrative by two of her daughters. The original two volumes are bound as one in this reprint edition. No jacket and off-mint.

Luke Owen Pike (1835–1915) was a barrister and an historical researcher in the Public Records Office, and his history of crime from Roman times to 1874 draws on his legal expertise and his access to historical documents. In great detail, he shows how ‘the definition of crime was being gradually evolved during the slow march of history’. Reprint edition. No jackets.

St George is England’s patron saint, yet many other nations, from Hungary to Ethiopia, consider him their own. This compact guide reviews what is known about this early martyr, and traces his battle with the dragon to legendary pre-Christian heroes.

In a disaster commemorated by one of William McGonagall’s famously bad poems, engineer Thomas Bouch's Tay Bridge collapsed when a train was passing over it during a storm in 1879, killing everyone on board. This revision of David Swinfen's 1994 study of the event analyses the evidence and technical studies to answer the still-contested questions of why the bridge failed and how many people lost their lives.

The Third Crusade united European leaders in an expedition to reclaim the Holy Land from Saladin. It is particularly well-documented, with contemporary chronicles surviving from both sides of the conflict, some of which were written by men present in the region. First published in 1889, this compilation of translated sources juxtaposes accounts by different authors and illustrates how events such as the siege of Acre were viewed at the time.

This series presents engaging, academically credible biographies, written from an explicitly historical perspective.

Volume 1 traces the development of theatre from its origins in Egyptian and Middle Eastern religious ritual, to Greek and Roman drama.

Combining narrative verve with meticulous scholarship, this brilliant chronicle charts the vicissitudes of a tempestuous century. Starting at the dawn of an era ripe with promise, it shows how empires fell, leaving wars, revolutions, economic depressions and totalitarian regimes in their wake. It also examines the details of everyday life – how children were raised, why cities expanded, and the effects of technology and mass media – before concluding with the fall of the Soviet Union and the resurgence of Islam.

The story of Sigmund Freud and his family’s experience of WWII, from the annexing of Austria in 1938 to subsequent raids on their home and their dramatic and dangerous plates

Arriving in Britain from Maryland after the Battle of Waterloo, the four Caton sisters took London society by storm. Based on unpublished letters, this glorious book charts their fortunes against a glittering backdrop of money, politics and power. It tells how each overcame prejudice to forge her own destiny: Emily managed their estates back home, Bess triumphed on the London stock market, Marianne married Wellington's brother, and Louisa became Duchess of Leeds and a friend of Queen Victoria.

Slightly off-mint.

Published in 1851, eleven years after he famously wrote that 'property is theft' (in What is Property?), this work sets out Proudhon's radical vision of a society in which authority is decentralized among communes or cooperatives, with free contracts replacing laws. Reprint of the 1923 edition, translated by John Beverley Robinson.

These 12 essays, written between 1962 and 1982, deal with the political life of England during the 'the first age of Party', from the 1679-81 Exclusion Crisis to the end of Walpole's administration. Slightly off-mint.